P/S Update
 

so i renewed the p/s fluid and filter yesterday. thank you everyone for your input. here are a couple a things i did that seemed to work well for me.

1. disconnect the MAS unit (from 10/89 the MAS unit houses the fuel pump relay). this afforded me the ability to have my helper crank the engine without starting. i chose the MAS unit because its right there behind the secondary firewall, and takes 2 seconds to pull.

2. given that there is not a lot of room in the engine bay for a coffee can or other device, i used two heavy duty freezer bags. one inside the other for extra strength. i sent 1 qt at a time thru the system and the bags were more than strong enough for this application. the fact that they were malleable made the job really easy. i just zipped up the return line in the bag, held it with one hand, and with the other, poured in the new p/s fluid. no fuss.

3. i ran 3 qts thru the system. after the requisite 2, there was still a significant amount of contamination. after the third qt, its was much better.

thanks again for the help, hopefully my experience will help others in the future as well!

Nice work! How has it affected the steering of your car??? Or is this more of preventive maintenance ?

without the dirt in the fluid, feel has definitely increased and it requires a little less effort to steer. the differences are relatively small however. preventative maintenance was really the MO behind it.

I think that most drivers must have more sensitivity in feeling the steering wheel than myself. I have flushed some p/s systems that were really nasty and neglected and could still not feel any difference. It is a necessary preventive maintenance procedure however.

The bag method sounds fine, but I've never had any trouble at all by simply dropping the return line down into a regular drain pan. Have never had a mess to clean up when doing this. Maybe a very slight bit of spatter, but as long as the hose lays down in the bottom of the pan it is no problem.

Glad you got it done. It is a necessary PM step IMHO.

Have a great day,